Massive selloff hits VN stocks

Vietnamese shares plummeted as investor confidence was dampened by worries over the increasing pace of the US central bank’s interest rate hike this year.

A trading session at MayBank Kim Eng Securities Company in HCM City

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange tumbled 5.10 percent or 56.33 points to end at 1,048.71 points. It lost a total 1 percent last week.

The February 5 loss was also the biggest decline for the benchmark index in terms of percentage since May 8, 2014, when the VN Index plunged 5.87 percent. In terms of index score, the VN Index recorded the historical reduction.

The minor HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange dipped 4.06 percent to close at 118.94 points after having dropped total 2.25 percent last week.

The UPCoM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) lost 3.25 percent to finish at 56.93 points. It also declined by a total of 1 percent in the previous trading week.

More than 392.8 million shares were traded on the local stock exchanges, worth 10.1 trillion VND (449.4 million USD).

The February 5 sell-off has reduced market total capitalisation by 161.4 trillion VND to 3.06 quadrillion VND (136.2 billion USD), according to vietstock.vn.

All 20 sectors on the stock market ended in negative territory. The worst-performing industries included finance-banking, real estate, energy and mining, and food and beverage production.

Market trading was totally negative as declining stocks on the three local exchanges outnumbered gainers by 571 to 152, while 85 others were unchanged.

Large-cap stocks also traded poorly as 27 of the 30 largest ones by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket saw their prices down.

Thirteen of the 27 declining stocks in the VN30 basket suffered a daily declining limit of 6.9-7 percent each.

According to Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), the shake of the market on February 5 was caused by poor investor sentiment as investors were worried about more-than-expected interest rate hikes made by the US central bank.

The US employment report on February 2 revealed upbeat data in January as wages grew at the fastest pace in eight years, boosting expected inflation in the next few months to a high level.

The US data also suggested the US central bank could make more than three rate hikes this year, which triggered a massive sell-off in global markets.

“Vietnam’s stock market, which has a closer relationship with the global stock market than in the past, I was also affected. It experienced a dramatic loss today and could still suffer the influence in the next sessions,” (BVSC) said in its daily report.

In addition, “buying demand was beaten by profit-taking pressure and margin reduction before the upcoming long-week holiday. Therefore, the market fell across the board, causing a panic and fear in the market,” BVSC added.

The securities company forecast that “selling pressure will continue to rise in the first half of the next session, then market demand and supply will turn more balanced when the index declines to the 1,000-1,020 support zone.”